mentalblog.com comments:
If this site is your home, then simply accept that some people are interested in the kitchen, some in the library, some in the living room, etc.
We all have our own interests. Not everything that speaks to you speaks to me, and visa versa.
I am sitting alone in the toilet while you steal my books in the living room. And then you leave without saying goodbye.
Well I did want to mention something about the toilet, but thought you would probably ban me if I did ;)
I am devastated by life. I am unable to relate to a single person around my real and virtual world.
All my life I tried to outsmart gods and fate. I give up. I declare a complete capitulation. I am defeated to the core.
Please clarify TA, for the slow of understanding among us, the meaning of the toilet analogy.
What is wrong with Baruch's point?
The toilet door is locked tight, we hear the screams but cannot get in.
I invite guest not to linger in my mansion but to waltz with me and nobody dances to the same tune. Go home the violin man.
It seems to be locked from the inside.
It is certainly difficult to please all. כשם שפרצופיהם אינן שוות etc. Which is why I can discuss the politics in CH with one person, yichuda ilaa with another, the charge of dual loyalty in Jewish America today with a third. And with some more than others. Did I miss something, or is it more than the fact that the readership of this blog has become, for better and for worse, one that is far more knowledgeable (and interested - being that for most people one leads to another) in certain fields more than others? And granted that that is the case - what is so unacceptable about that?
I greeted you by the front door and I shared of my food and wine generously.
May be the stench of dead ideas is no longer possible to ignore and no longer acceptable as the main course.
Can you point me to the stable out back, I need some hay.
i am leaving in search of the swirling dervishes.
Again TA, there certainly are more topics in the world than Chabad stuff. However, being that for a long while this blog has been focusing on this issue rather heavily, it is but natural that most of the readers here are into this more than other things. I, for one, confess total ignorance of Rumi's poems. This is not standard fare in yeshiva. Is that to say that apart from Chabad stuff, there is no other common topics of conversation and searching worth exploring? Or that the failure of Rumi to catch on means the whole thing is worthless?!
I am searching for that intuitive communion of souls that transcends ideas. It is what they say about people who get it. And get it is always in the realm that transcends facts and thoughts. You don't need to know Rumi to appreciate his most powerful love poems and you don't need to play piano to get goose bums listening to Leonard.
pity - you were halfway intellectually honest
take some prozac
grow out of the "nobody understands my inner rhythms" self-pity - it's beneath you
get a life
and hatzlacha raba - you're actually not a bad guy
your lapdog scotty however . . .
its not "beneath me", its above you, shmuel monkes
do you think you have a monopoly on culture? truly cultured people don't wear their culture on thier sleeve - I happen to collect Old Master prints but I don't feel the need to download them to provoke some stirring of the cyberchulent pot
I note your recent stoking the anit chabad rhetoric "I am not one of them" (a little John Merrick if I've ever heard) do you conceed it's hard to engage in any type of meaningful bittul and serious introspection towards a greater purpose when you are esconced in superficial narcissistic exhibitionism?
despite your belated self-immolation, I still wish you well and I hope you find it
BTW you shouldn't feel bad that you can't find what you seek in cyberspace
you should however be concerned that it eludes you in the "olam ha-emes"
stop holding a wake for your self, go to sleep, daven in the morning with extra kavana and you'll be OK
I fully understand the kind of coversation you are looking for. In my previous comment, I mentioned both lack of knowledge, or lack of interest and said that one can lead to another, that for all but the most inquisitive-thinking and open-minded among us, at some point the ignorance of the entire topic is such as to make it easier to skip it to start with. In fact, that is exactly what I did with the Rumi posts; just skip over them. You are certainly right that at some level, this denotes shallowness.
The question of to what point is open-mindedness a good thing is an entirely different one. However, the essential point is clear.
SM, the general hallmark of wisdom is being quiet. The real SM was known for his words being worth repeating, much unlike the verbal diarrhea emanating from your side of town.
Um, if you can deal with a simple man offering a simple comment: thanks for the effort involved in your site, and sorry I'm not educated enough to tango with you on most of the issues you raise with passion. That doesn't mean I think you're always correct, but that would become boring rather quickly, eh? Now, teach me how this dance goes...
Some of us don't respond to what you post because we don't understand a lot of what you post, but we do come back because you post some of the most interesting things. I've listened to that David Gray song today and I could not help but think how much of Rumi it reminded me of. I find myself visiting this site over and over because it is such a wonderful place. You posted a poem by Rumi translated by Coleman Barks, you should listen to Coleman Barks recite Rumi if you havent already. It's a treat. Here is a sample:
http://www.soundstrue.com/files_...io/
aw00488r.ram
those who can ... do
those who can't .... blog
ad can
shmuel monkes, your type is exactly why I developed an alergy for paternalistic, I know the truth, superficial people that are found in Chabad today in great numbers.
In several emails and posts you never failed to offer a redemption to me by saying that after all "I am not a bad guy". Who do you think you are? Go through the midlife crisis again now. You are essentially mean and dim.
JSG, the conversation is elusive and real life connections are sparse. Let me go back to my cave. I can't resolve anything in this life; the truth will always be an outcast of life. G-d created community of his people and it is a monumental failure. Meanness and self interest covers Jewish communities of the world like an air we breathe. Down with hypocritical rhetoric. Often I refrain from being critical just like that Moshav band concert. But in short our music, our art, our literature, our poetry, our leading by example is in a total collapse. It is over.
TA _ I know who I am - yes maybe 20 years ago I went through my Ayn Rand/Hesse phase steeped in my own self worth and importance and yes, I'm glad that's behind me B"H- the fact remains that while your blog started out well meaning, aesthetically pleasing et al, you ultimately morphed into the very thing you railed against - cunin trashing - OK, fogelman trashing - OK, hecht trashing OK etc. ad nauseum but mention scotty and you're bleeping away - kinda playing G-d and showing the very cronyism, nepotism and selective enforcement - the same thing you accuse them of. At that point, your pretenses towards culture became little more than caricatures of culture either as in "I'm better than these black and white 2-D guys - I have culture" or "I can illuminate the barbarians at my gate" by then TA had jumped the cybershark and it was too late
I stand by what I say (do you?) I don't wish you ill, but you should try to be consistent and not dish it out if you can't take it and beware of the cultures you create in the cyberpetri dish of yours
the RR said "never fool yourself, never fool others, never let others fool you" I try to live up to that.
life is not all black and white so when I qualify my words with - you're not a bad guy, I mean just that - unfortunately cyberspace leads to an obscene reductionism and oversimplification of virtually every issue and I've enjoyed much of your site, even when I disagreed with what you or your posters had to say - you are a sensitive, cultured guy - take that as a challenge not an epitaph to do something positive and not feed an aura of negativity. as I said, self pity just doesn't become you _ i trusted that you could handle a nuanced response - don't prove me wrong
mean and dim? is that a chinese dish? c'mon you can do better than that (you did above)
and I stand by my previous offer - there'll always be an aliyah by us with your name on it
b'hatzlacha
BTW, I want to ebmrace the lifes highs and lows without prozac.
Oh my! Looks like a busy weekend at mentalbog.com! TA, I raise a shot of vodka to you – לחיים !
Great job go away into cyberspace.,
If you want a place to stay in Ch I can arrange a shabbos by Rabbi Levy Shlita
i envy you, TA. when you get into a suicidal mood you can simply shut down your blog and feel better by destroying your cyber self. what is there for the rest of us?
But in short our music, our art, our literature, our poetry, our leading by example is in a total collapse. It is over.
--
"I have not yet begun to fight."
Dude,
Alright I don't know what to say, except that your blog is great, you're a fascinating person and I've learnt a great deal from you.
I hope you stay.
mnuez
Tzemach -- take a deep breath -- take a short holiday -- focus and COME BACK! Your departure would leave the blogosphere a poorer place!
Tzemach -- take a deep breath -- take a short holiday -- focus and COME BACK! Your departure would leave the blogosphere a poorer place!
Paul
to that lazy me who never said yet thanks to you , responds with a vigorous amen !
blogs like HR, Godal Hador comne and go. The fact is how much energy can one have? I have been reading you everyday but I will not miss you. there already is someone ready to take over he helm
Regarding your post, TA, about "I am searching for that intuitive communion..."
As W. B. Yeats said so aptly…
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood dimm'd tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Mayim Chayim left behind to dig the wells that leak. That is what leads to things falling apart. Centers cannot hold for the only thing that holds is truth. People don’t get you? Who are you? A sum total of all the choices you make. Since each person makes unique choices, no one can fully understand another. We can come to a meeting of minds, an understanding where our minds can both touch truth. To ask the world to understand you when you center around “intellectual culture” can only be answered by those who like you, have made the choice to immerse themselves in that culture. I, while I might feel those goosebumps you describe, feel know connection to secular love songs for to me they ring hollow and empty. Ah well, another country bumpkin who doesn’t get it – isn’t that your thoughts now…
There is a great Hebrew essay I got from a friend. It is about a green, green man who woke up in his green, green bed wearing his green, green pajamas, said hello to his green, green wife, ate his green breakfast, left his green house through his green door, got into his green car and was driving down his green street admiring the green scenery when suddenly up ahead he spotted a BLUE man. The green man jumped out and said “hey, what are you doing here?” To which the blue man replied, “Me, I’m just from a different story.”
Now, Tzemach, if you got that story, you and I might have some similar understanding. If not, you might be “from another story.” Just because my friend and I both “got it” didn’t mean we would “get” other things about each other. This is why the Hungarians click their ring-clad fingers, roll their dramatic eyes chandelier-wise and say, “Ill never understand the Russaks.” And why the Russians tell about how in their previous life as engineers they didn’t ever see such ignorance as that of the Hungarians. And the Poles don’t understand the Germans, and the Persians don’t understand the Bukharans and so on and so forth. Don’t expect a universal understanding, a "intuitive communion of souls" EXCEPT for where there is a universal truth – only on issues of G-d can all minds finally meet and that will then be “Malchus Shakai”
So the green and blue men are in the same story now?
Alternative suggestion: Just disable the Comments for a time ....
thank you all
TA
You probably began blogging for the very reason that you now claim you want to quit, that no one around you understands you. I hope that you reconsider. I have learned much here. And those in the nonvirtual world aren't getting any more understanding, especially not in Boston.
Tzemach, just leave behind the chabad issues, and start blogging about something else.
Interesting why those of us here looking for the Chabad issues can't find our own home, and need to go to the neighbors house and steal his books.
Are we all just a bunch of homeless refugees?
Boruch, I blog about subjects that I find interesting not about subjects that are good for my mental health. But now I have a mental block.
boruch - if you want a good chabad trashing site try failedmessiah (its got Tzemach's haskama) for good cultural sites, try the rest of the world
TA - hope you get past your block but if not, and you're committed to pulling the site, here's a cyberepitaph
"Her lies our good cyberpal tzemach
short on Torah, short on kemach
surveyed his work and said "kulo sog"
now HE'S a victim of the golem of blog"
monkes, witty, very witty.
the real shmuel monkes was sarcastic but not mean.
PS I don't do "trashing".
You have an excellnt website. Please do not give up.
baalbatish, how much are you willing to contribute to my paypal account?
this has some comic value:
http://news.chabad.fm/144/5934.html
but is it worth blooging about?
" boruch - if you want a good chabad trashing site try failedmessiah "
Now you sound like an ass. Trashing doesn't interest me at all. You don’t trash your (dysfunctional) family. You try to understand the problem and fix it.
so if we don't talk about this, others will:
http://www.thejewishweek.com/new...hp3?
artid=11082
Halavai that should be our biggest problem.
learned alot of interesting things from you. take a short break, prepare something good and return.
all of us bloggers feel like we have had it, more often than not - but staying power is important. change gears a bit and return with gusto.
I dropped by here because OOSJ blogged about you. Though I have not read your blog yet, I did read the unyielding, nasty comments. I feel much the same as you do.
I don't have any answers, unfortunately. Sounds like you have something good to offer in a sea of mediocrity. Turning off comments, I find, hasn't been enough. It's not the comments, as much as the general toxic, dumb, and puerile attitude that seems to prevail on the net and all over the J blogosphere.
I'm looking for another venue, away from the Jblog world- though I think that may not be possible. It's so disillusioning, and it makes you wonder where all the good people are.
It sounds as if you are doing the thing best for your heart and soul. There are people who will understand, I'm thinking, just not here. There is nothing worse, IMO, than being in a crowd that makes you feel even lonelier.
Kol hakavod.
BTW, I have loved Rumi's poetry. And no matter what, stay true to yourself, in a blog or in the world. This much I do know.
Ubeavud RESHOIM RINO! Good riddance to the Chaim Shoulson of the blog world. I guess that Haldol is working!
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